In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in the field of camera-related technology, and digital cameras have come to replace conventional film cameras.
An advantage of a digital camera is that, whereas a conventional film camera does not allow a captured image to be checked before being developed, a digital camera allows a captured image to be checked on the spot, resulting in few failures even by a beginner. Also, while film can only be used once, a digital camera records captured images in removable semiconductor memory (hereinafter referred to as a “memory card”), which can be used any number of times if recorded images are deleted, and is thus advantageous from a cost standpoint. Furthermore, since captured images are digital signals, the amount of recorded data can be reduced by using image compression technology, enabling still more efficient use of a memory card.
A photographer who is unused to photography may miss a shutter release opportunity by operating the shutter at a moment when the subject has his/her eyes closed or his/her head turned to one side, for instance, or may take a blurred picture due to unsteady handling of the camera (“shake”) when shooting. In addition, many have had the experience of taking a fuzzy or overexposed photograph because of an inappropriate shooting condition setting.
Some cameras are equipped with a continuous shooting function in order to solve such problems. Use of this continuous shooting function makes it possible to take multiple photographs of the same subject continuously under the same shooting conditions, and enables the best of the captured images to be selected. Moreover, a so-called “auto-bracket” function is becoming popular that makes it possible to perform continuous shooting while varying shooting conditions such as exposure and white balance on an image-by-image basis.
With the above-described continuous shooting function, a plurality of images are recorded in a memory card in one shooting. These images are recorded as one image file for one image. Each image included in images captured by this continuous shooting function (hereinafter referred to as “continuous-shot images”) differs in nature from an image captured by a normal shooting function (hereinafter referred to as a “single-shot image”) A single-shot image is a single independent image, and the shooting time, shooting location, shooting conditions, and so forth, differ for each such image. In contrast, a continuous-shot image is one of a series of images, and after being captured, these images are handled together.
Therefore, if continuous-shot images are recorded in the same way as single-shot images, inconvenience arises in the handling of continuous-shot images. For example, it is laborious to select and print one image from among continuous-shot images (because it is the most successfully captured, or particularly pleasing, or for some other reason), or to input that one image to a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a “PC”) and subject it to various kinds of processing. Also, it is necessary to select all images each time continuous-shot images are deleted, moved, or copied together, making the operating procedure cumbersome. Furthermore, the photographer must judge all continuous-shot images visually in order to find one image among the continuous-shot images, which is time-consuming and may lead to an incorrect selection.
In order to resolve such problems, a method has been proposed whereby, by creating a new folder in a memory card each time continuous shooting is performed, and recording a plurality of image files obtained by one continuous shooting within that folder, continuous-shot image retrieval, playback, printing, deletion, and suchlike processing is performed easily even if many image files are generated by one continuous shooting operation (see Patent Document 1, for example).
Also, a method has been proposed whereby continuous-shot images are recorded in a memory card with a continuous shooting ID added to the header of each image file, and a continuous-shot image file can be retrieved rapidly even if a single-shot image file is recorded in the same folder as a continuous-shot image file (see Patent Document 2, for example).
Additionally, a method has been proposed whereby continuous-shot images captured by means of an auto-bracket function are displayed simultaneously in a display section, simplifying selection of a desired image (see Patent Document 3, for example).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 11-341421    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-143020    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-229073    Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 7-245723    Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 6-325147    Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 1-201776